GPO is known as an enzyme which catalyses a reaction in which dihydroxyacetone phosphate and one molecule of hydrogen peroxide are formed from L-.alpha.-glycerophosphate and one molecule of oxygen.
So far, bacteria belonging to the genus Streptococcus, the genus Lactobacillus, the genus Pediococcus (JP-A-58-165789 and JP-A-57-198085; the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application"), the genus Leuconostoc and the genus Aerococcus (JP-A-55-15746) are known as microorganisms which produce GPO, and the GPO produced by these bacteria can be used as an enzyme for clinical inspection and reagent use, e.g., for the measurement of lipase activity and determination of triglyceride, glycerol, ATP and the like.
Production of GPO by these conventional GPO-producing bacteria has several problems. For example, when a GPO-producing bacterium belonging to the genus Streptococcus is used, it entails problems such as considerably high cost. Thus, in recent years, a method for the production of GPO by means of recombinant DNA techniques has been reported using a bacterium belonging to the genus Streptococcus (JP-A-2-454), and it is known that the GPO produced by this method can be used as an enzyme for the clinical inspection reagent.
However, in order to use GPO in the aforementioned field, great concern has been directed toward the development of GPO having more superior stability and excellent properties such as heat resistance and reactivity and the production of GPO with a low cost. That is, since shift over to liquid reagents is in progress in the recent field of clinical inspection, development of more stable GPO having higher reactivity and higher reliability is expected.